English character.
What kind of people are Englishmen? First of all they are reserved. They never talk much to strangers and do not show many emotions. They never tell anything about themselves. If they travel by train they will try to find an empty compartment. They also may travel with other passengers many miles and not to start a conversation. If it starts, you may not ask questions like " How old are you?", " Where did you buy your watch?"," What is your salary?" Those questions are impossible.
Englishmen are also very modest. They will never say:" I'm good at tennis.", but " I'm not bad at tennis.", or" I think I'm quite good...". English humor is well known. You can often hear: He is a man of humor, or - He has no sense of humor.
It is sometimes a problem in Great Britain to shake hands or not. They do it very rare: if they are introduced or see people off for long or meet them after a long time. They embrace one another also very rarely - may be on a football match when they score a goal.
They say British people drink more tea than any other nation, and it's true. They drink it in bed in the morning, round the fire on winter afternoons and in the garden on summer days. Tea was brought to G. B. from China and much later than coffee. And it became very popular. There are two kinds of tea: afternoon tea and "high tea". They have afternoon tea between three-thirty and four-thirty. "High tea" is between five-thirty and six-thirty. They often have high tea instead of supper (or dinner) at seven in the evening. For "high tea" or "big tea" they have cold meat, bread and butter, cakes and a lot of tea. Most of the British like tea with sugar and milk, such tea is called "English tea". They always drink tea out of cups, never out of glasses. P.S. The so-called English breakfast includes tea or coffee, toasted bread and butter and jam.
Answer the questions.
• 1. Do Englishmen like to speak much?
• 2. Do they like to speak when they travel by train?
• 3. What questions are impossible?
• 4. Do Englishmen often say anything good about themselves?
• 5. Do they like humor?
• 6. Do they often shake hands and embrace each other?
• 7. What do Englishmen like to drink very much?
• 8. What is Уhigh teaФ?
• 9. What tea is called УEnglish teaФ?
• 10. What is called УBritish breakfastФ?